Archive for the ‘heart disease’ Category

What are Lectins?

Do you suffer from symptoms after eating? Such as digestive symptoms, foggy brain, sinus congestion or aches and pains. Do you notice it after gluten containing foods or just can’t track what’s causing it? Chances are you’re body is reacting to components in plants called lectins.

What are lectins? So happy you asked!

Lectins are the plants natural compounds to ward off pests, fungal and bacterial attack. That is, the plants natural immune system. When plants are under attack they raise their lectin numbers to fend off the attacking pests. This is the system by which pesticides work. However, pests are gaining tolerance resulting in needing an increase of pesticide to be applied to the plant and thus a further increase of the plants lectins.

Modern wheat strains vs old style grains

Our modern wheat strains have been modified to produce more lectins to be highly pest resistant. This very clever genetically engineering won Norman Borlaug a Nobel peace prize in 1970 and changed the industry inexplicably. However, years later we are discovering the health consequences of our daily foods containing such an immense amount of lectins.

Let me explain:

The modern wheat (Triticum aestivum) is a genetically engineered species containing three distinct sets of chromosomes. These chromosomes can produce over 23,000 unique proteins. Thus this modern species contains high protein and gluten levels plus wheat germ agglutinin (WGA). WGA is a lectin which provides wheat with its resistance to insect pests, yeasts and bacteria. Interestingly WGA binds to N-acetyl D glucosamine in the chitin of the insects, disrupting their cell structures and killing them.

Why are lectins so bad?

It is this WGA (lectins) which can also directly damage tissues of the human bodywherever N-acetyl glucosamine is present, even if the individual doesn’t have any genetic predispositions or susceptibilities to immune mediated mechanisms. For example, the auto-immune conditions or inflammatory reactions. However, the presence of lectins can and do exacerbate inflammation for auto-immune conditions such as Coeliac’s Disease, making symptoms worse. This can explain why chronic inflammatory and degenerative conditions are gaining prevalence in wheat-consuming populations. It destroys the villi in your intestines, leading to malabsorption, nutrient deficiencies and infections!

All mucosal membranes throughout the digestive system, respiratory system, etc.

Connective tissues in joints

Brain cells and organs

Skin

Arterial bifurcations, including around the heart.

It is proposed that it is the increased lectin content that are causing major health problems for people rather than gluten. For example, many Australians experience health problems after eating products made from Australian grown wheat. Where as if they travel to other countries and consume wheat based products from there they do not, i.e. France or Italy. Such countries grew different strains of wheat which were largely unmodified like our Australian grains. Hence, the end product (croissants, baguettes, pasta, pizza bases) had less lectin resulting in fewer reactions after eating. Of course this has now changed as the high yield strains are now more global.

Is it just grains which we get lectins from?

Furthermore, when livestock are fed grains high in WGA lectins this then passes through their system to the products we consume. For example, dairy milk. Therefore, if you’re experiencing symptoms after consuming dairy it may not be lactose or actual dairy protein but the lectins passed through the dairy cow to their milk. Likewise with meats, hence the advantage of consuming grass fed meats only.

There have been some notable improvements when individuals have ceased dairy and gluten products, possibly due to the decrease of consumed lectins. Some of these conditions include:

As it is impossible to maintain a healthy diet and avoid lectins if you are experiencing symptoms pertaining to lectins the key is reduce intake and increase tolerance.

Firstly, even organic and spray free fresh fruit and vegetables contain lectins, but if they’re not engineered they should contain less. Grass-fed meats and dairy is the best way forward for proteins to reduce lectin intake.

How can tolerance to lectins be improved?

There is no definitive answer to improving the individual’s lectin tolerance, however there is some key things you can do. Have good healthy nutrient intake particularly zinc. The herb ginger is particularly high in zinc and is very good at reducing inflammation and calming and supporting function all along the digestive track. Having said that, if there is any history of stomach ulcers please consult your local herbalist or naturopath for advice.

And then there’s Kinesiology 🙂

How can Kinesiology help improve tolerance to lectins?

Kinesiology is a way to ask your body what is stressing it by what we call indicator muscles. It is largely based on Traditional Chinese Medicine meridian system and acupuncture points which are like reference points. Via assessing where the stress is the body can also indicate how to relieve the stress, thus reducing the symptoms one is experiencing. Therefore kinesiology balancing is a remarkable way to reduce symptoms.

What about Acupuncture and Chi Nei Tsang Abdominal Massage?

Also great ways to increase the energy to the gut, reduce stress and increase energy. Chi Nei Tsang Abdominal Massage is nearly an hour on your gut – it helps to break down the scar tissue that has built up around the abdomen due to years of food-abuse that’s destroyed the villi – let the healing begin!!!

So I know that during consolidation the occasional glass of exercise is fine (weight wise). But check out this study that shows the higher levels we do of exercise, the more protected we are from heart disease. It makes sense since people who exercise at higher intensity and more often, usually drink more water, have better blood supply around the body, often take supplements (that support heart function and energy) like magnesium, coenzyme Q10 and anti-oxidants, and generally live a ‘healthier’ lifestyle. Also, the quality of our muscle mass improves with exercise – and your heart is a big muscle!!!

Ask about our VLA BioImpedance Screening; Insulin Resistance Test and OligoScan testing to find out the quality of your muscles and how your heart/cardiovascular system is tracking…

In the 70’s when heart disease and diabetes was on the rise, we were told that fat was the villain. Companies, governments, medical researchers all around the world jumped on this bandwagon and now ‘low fat’ products – muesli bars, yoghurts, milks, drinks, chips – were better for you – with the idea that if a food didn’t have fat in it, it couldn’t make you fat!

However, take the fat out of food and it tastes awful, so they had to replace it with something – sugar! Eventually sugar became the essential additive. Foods then became low in fats, high in sugar which is so much worse for our health.

Imagine these ‘health foods’:

98% fat free yoghurt – you might as well is eat lollies or ice-cream!

Real egg mayonnaise – the low fat variety – has 6 x the sugar that the regular one has

low fat muesli bars – often contain 20-40% sugar

The Heart Society actually recommended (in the 80’s) that high fat foods be replaced by: hard candy, gumdrops, sugar, syrup, honey, jam, jelly, marmalade – in order to ‘control the amount and kind of fat, saturated fatty acids and dietary cholesterol you eat’. Even now, the tick of approval, seems to have nothing to do with health.

So, in the 70’s and 80’s sugar was recommended, instead of fat, to keep up healthy!

Now that 60-70% of Australia’s population are overweight and obese, it seems that the low-fat diet we’ve been following for 30 years hasn’t worked. In naturopathic circles we’ve been working against this for decades, however that ‘tick of approval’ from the National Heart Foundation, is what so many people go by for their health.

Many cereals such as Cheerios & Milo Cereal have up to 30% sugar – endorsed by the National Heart Foundation

The National Heart Foundation claims that the tick is ‘simply to help consumers find healthier options’ – how is 30% sugar a healthier option?

In the U.S. there’s been a 7 x increase in sugar consumption in the past 40 years – tomato & barbeque sauces, processed foods, hamburger meats, hamburger buns – just about anything with a ‘label’ has added sugar, or sugar alternatives such as aspartame, which are equally deadly to our health.

Since the agricultural revolution – when grains became a major part of our diet – our carbohydrate intake has slowly increased – but never more so than in the past 40 years. This leads to a constantly high insulin levels, which messes with our metabolism, and allows us to lay down fat in our bodies. In fact, insulin is the main hormone which causes fat deposition in the tissues.

The higher the insulin, the more likely you are to store fat.

Now, if it’s subcutaneous fat, the type that stores just in underneath the skin, that’s not so bad. Visceral fat, however, is deposited around the gut, intestines, liver and other organs – is incredibly bad for us. Visceral fat releases ‘pro-inflammatory hormones’ which cause inflammation elsewhere in the body: causing diabetes and heart disease. It is possible to be lean, and metabolically unhealthy. Around 40% of ‘thin/normal weight’ people are metabolically unhealthy with abnormal levels of visceral fat and poor insulin metabolism.

Professor Michael Cowley, an Obesity Expert at Monash Universitysays ‘you might as well eat sugar as many of the health foods’ available today.’

Sugar is a simple carbohydrate made of two molecules: glucose and fructose. This bond is cleaved in the gut, before it’s absorbed. It’s been shown that glucose drives the fat storage just in underneath the skin, whereas fructose deposits fat around the organs, like the liver, causing fatty plaques. When you have excess fat around the liver, it messes up fat and insulin metabolism and you end up with Insulin Resistance. This is when the liver doesn’t work effectively, so the pancreas has to release excess insulin.

Insulin Resistance also causes hypertension, changes in the brain that might result in altered brain function, altered cognitive function and even dementia. It can increase cell proliferation which can cause cancer, it can cause vascular smooth muscle proliferation which can cause heart disease.

Professor Robert Lustig, Paediatric Endocrinologist at the University of California, San Francisco, says that Sugar can also accelerate ageing: if you had your fruit juice this morning, you are ageing 7 times faster!

When you ‘paint’ your BBQ meat with BBQ sauce, it browns the meat. This ‘browning’ is happening inside your body as well. It’s known as the ‘browning reaction’ and it causes cellular ageing. The reason manufacturers add fructose is because is browns better, faster, quicker. It’s why it’s added to bread (to brown the toast), sauces (to brown the meats) – it browns your insides better too! If you had a glass of fruit juice this morning, you’re ageing 7 x quicker!

Fructose is mainly found in fruit, that’s why they call it fruit sugar. Now, you might be thinking ‘how can it be bad for me – it’s fruit!’. But if you had to have the entire amount of fruit that we would have used to make the juice, you would be so full you couldn’t eat the meal. Juicing removed the fibrous pulp portion of the fruit – so you can take in a whole lot more calories without feeling as full, and it’s the fibrous pulp which balances the sugar/fructose portion of the fruit!

If you’re going to eat fruit, eat the whole fruit – because it’s the fibre that tames your insulin response to sugar.

Chronically high levels of fructose is not only toxic to your liver, it messes with the hormones that control appetite. There’s a hormone in your stomach called ghrelin which controls your appetite – it’s the hunger hormone. When your stomach is empty, the ghrelin goes up, tells your brain it’s time to eat. Then you eat, and ghrelin levels go down, the hunger goes away. When you eat sugar, fructose does not get registered by the brain as you having eaten, you stay hungry!

If you need support in finding out what you should (and shouldn’t) be eating – call us on 3348 6098 to make an appointment. We find that many of our clients have issues with Insulin Resistance, dealing with Fructose, releasing ghrelin and so much more!

Embarking on a health journey is a brave move to make. It means looking at the issues you may have avoided for a while and facing them head on. It’s a process that is often scary yet can also be richly rewarding. When you are the best version of yourself you can be, you can really shine and be there for those close to you.

It can be said that it’s a means of coming back to your basic self – seeing your body as a precious temple and paying attention to what you really need. It’s treating yourself gently and gaining a greater connection to the whole of you – body and mind. As one of my favourite authors Sarah Avant Stover puts it – the only way out is in and through. To go through our health issues rather than going around them is the only real way to back to balance and health.

At New Leaf, we are committed to your success in this process. We know it’s yours, to go through in your way. Offering a harmonious range of therapies, we seek to find the real cause of your health issues and guide you back to balance and health.

We see your journey to optimal health as a partnership between yourself and us. Thus, we have a few suggestions for you in order that you get the best results from your treatment with us:

Eat a fresh, wholefoods diet. When you eat fresh, vital food, you feel just that. Everything we eat nourishes our cells. If we consider that the body is really the only vessel we have to take us through this lifetime, it makes sense to nourish it with the best food possible.

Drink a minimum of 2 litres of pure filtered water daily. Besides hydration, there are countless benefits of drinking adequate pure water. Improved energy, detoxification, digestion, skin condition and weight loss are just a few.

Limit caffeine, or better still, cut it altogether. Caffeine creates extra work for your liver, and can place stress on the adrenal glands and nervous system. It also promotes dehydration and in the long term, fatigue. There are many delicious herbal teas and coffee alternatives available in supermarkets and health food stores.

Sleep 8 hours a night. While sleeping as little as possible in modern society is often considered admirable behaviour, the truth is, it promotes premature aging, weight gain, can increase stress and complicate many other health issues. It may require changing your usual routine a little, but getting 8 hours of quality sleep a night is an investment in your health.

Spend a few minutes a day alone, doing some quiet breath awareness in a comfortable seated position. All you need do is focus on your breath with your eyes closed. This can have wonderfully beneficial effects on your nervous system, improving mood, reducing stress and creating calm. A calm body heals well!

Increase body movement. This means different things to different people. Start with where you are at in terms of your current physical fitness, and do what feels right for you. Even if it just means adding incidental exercise by taking the stairs instead of the lift, walking to a colleague’s desk rather than emailing, or taking a short walk before or after work. Start where you are at the moment and build gently from there.

These are simple steps you can take today to improve your body’s ability to balance and heal. You can do one at a time, a few, or all of them, whatever feels right and good for you. It’s up to you.

We look forward to supporting you in achieving a state of greater health.

Cardiovascular Issues? Always considered a medical problem only. Did you know that many nutrients and combination protect the heart, repair and heal valves, increase flow and reduce risk of heart attacks and strokes… Naturopath processess can find many causes and ways of improving cardiovascular health which don’t cause side effects in our bodies…

** Stem Cell Enhancement Products– We have products which are known to increase stem cell production from the bone marrow – we’ve used these for valve repair, heart strength and reducing heart enlargement. Find out how you can buy at a reduced price… Call us on 3348 6098

Inflammation decreases during HCG: I’ve had clients who have struggled with weight for years, and HCG turns them around brilliantly. Did you know that inflammation and weight gain go hand in hand?

* BMI over 30 means the fat tissue releases over 32 inflammatory hormones (that’s only 20% more than optimal weight)
* Inflammation switches off feel-good hormones which can be crucial in helping us maintain our enthusiasm for weight loss
* Inflammation switches on the adrenals, cortisol which switch off thyroid (which controls our metabolism)
* Stress does all of these things and more…

* Inflammation is also the key to developing cancer, heart disease and diabetes… a great reason to get your BMI’s back in the perfect range…

You Can Reverse Type 2 Diabetes

Please don’t let anyone tell you that type 2 diabetes has no cure, as this is not true. Type 2 diabetes is not terminal; you don’t have to live with it forever! Nearly 100 percent of type 2 diabetics can be successfully treated — eliminating the symptoms of diabetes, or the high risk of developing health complications — if you are willing to implement the lifestyle changes discussed below. These same changes will also drastically reduce your risk of the disease, so you can avoid developing it in the first place.

Following my nutrition plan will help you do this without much fuss. It’s important to realize that nearly all type 2 diabetics need to swap out their grains for other foods, such as healthy sources of protein or vegetable-only carbohydrates.

Exercise is an absolutely essential factor, without which you’re highly unlikely to get this devastating disease under control. It is clearly one of the most potent ways to lower your insulin and leptin resistance. Make sure to incorporate high-intensity Peak Fitness exercises. These types of exercises boost fat loss, promote muscle building, and help your body produce human growth hormone (HGH) naturally. Typically, you’ll need large amounts of exercise until you get your blood sugar levels under control. You may need up to an hour or two a day. Naturally, you’ll want to gradually work your way up to that amount, based on your current level of fitness.

Consume saturated fats, such as grass-fed organic meat, raw dairy products, avocados, and coconut oil. These saturated fats provide a concentrated source of energy along with the building blocks for cell membranes and a variety of hormones and hormone-like substances. When you eat healthy fats as part of your meal, they slow down absorption so that you can go longer without feeling hungry. In addition, they act as carriers for important fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K.

There are more than a dozen different types of saturated fat, but you predominantly consume only three: stearic acid, palmitic acid and lauric acid. It’s already been well established that stearic acid (found in cocoa and animal fat) has no effect on your cholesterol levels at all, and actually gets converted in your liver into the monounsaturated fat called oleic acid.

The other two, palmitic and lauric acid, do raise total cholesterol. However, since they raise “good” cholesterol as much or more than “bad” cholesterol, you’re still actually lowering your risk of heart disease.

Monitor your fasting insulin level. This is every bit as important as your fasting blood sugar. You’ll want your fasting insulin level to be between 2 to 4. The higher your level, the worse your insulin receptor sensitivity is. The recommendations mentioned above are the key steps you need to achieve this reduction. As the new leaf team to check your insulin resistance levels as well.

I found this article on the web and it’s perfect since we’ve seen valve repair, enlarged hearts reduce in size, improvement in heart function with Stem Enhance and Stem Flo. Madonna 🙂

Aortic Valve Stenosis and Stem Cellsby: EJ Morris

Before the heart valve rejuvenation question is addressed.. many people need to know some facts on heart valve stenosis.

Description of Aortic Valve Stenosis

The aortic valve controls blood flow from the left ventricle to the aorta and the rest of the body. It opens when the ventricle contracts and closes when the ventricle relaxes.

Aortic stenosis means that the aortic valve has become narrowed. The result is that the left ventricle must squeeze harder to get a sufficient amount of blood through the aortic valve with each beat. (Imagine trying to push the same amount of water through a small syringe needle as through a hose). The increased work load makes the muscle of the left ventricle grow thicker (hypertrophy). Eventually the heart muscle cannot keep up with the work load and begins to fail.

Causes of Aortic Valve Stenosis

The three major causes of aortic stenosis are calcific degeneration or deposits of calcium on the valve (primarily affects the elderly), congenital abnormality with only two instead of three cusps, and rheumatic fever. Even in the case of a congenital defect, symptoms are most likely to occur only in adulthood.

Aortic stenosis can occur at any age (because the causes are different) but is usually asymptomatic until middle or old age.

The condition is three times more common in men than women.

Symptoms of Aortic Valve Stenosis

Aortic stenosis does not always cause symptoms immediately, even though the valve can be tight. When the heart begins to fail, symptoms of congestive heart failure can develop including fatigue, weakness, shortness of breath with exercise or at night, and swelling in the ankles.

Other symptoms associated with aortic stenosis are angina (chest pain) and fainting upon exertion (syncope).

Characteristic signs include a heart murmur heard with a stethoscope.

Notes from Madonna.

We’ve been helping the body repair heart tissue for several years (as natural supplements have improved so much) and have had great success with Stem Enhance, Stem Flo, CardioX, Metacard CoQ10, Metagen B12Folate & more. Even chronically ill people with only a few months to live have had their lives change with natural supplements and have been given their lives back!